PROCEEDINGS AT THE BANQUET 



HON. JAMES A. CGORMAN. 



1903. 




Glass. 
Book: 



luS' 



.1 



£^ 



PRESENTED BY 



PROCEEDINGS AT THE BANQUET 
TO 

HON. JAMES A. O'GORMAN. 



Reported and published by order of the Society, 1903. 



PRESS OF 

W. p. Mitchell & Sons, 

. 39 BHEKMAN STREET, 
NEW YORK. 

Gift 
The Society 

2d copy accepted 
Order Div, 



(^ffxttvB at tlt0 ^ortrty of tltp iFrtPttiln i'otis 
of ^t Patrtrk. 1303. 

PRESIDENT 

JAMES FITZGERALD 

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT 

JOSEPH I. C. CLARKE 

SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT 

MICHAEL J. DRUMMOND 

TREASURER 

JOHN D. CRIMMINS 

RECORDING SECRETARY 

JOHN J. LENEHAN 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY 

WILLIAM TEMPLE EMMET 

ALMONER 

FRANCIS HIGGINS 







U?ru?rtz^ 









/x?rr>^ya/n/ 






At a meeting of the Society of the Friendly Sons 
OF St. Patrick in the City of New York, held on Mon- 
day evening, January 5th, 1903, at Dehnonico's, the fol- 
lowing resolution proposed by the Hon. Morgan J. 
O'Brien, and seconded by Mr. Stephen Farrelly, was 
unanimously adopted by the Society : 

"RESOLVED, That the members of the Society of the 
"Friendly Sons of St. Patrick tender to the retiring presi- 
"dent, the Honorable James A. O'Gorman, in some suitable man- 
"ner, an expression of their personal esteem for him and their ap- 
"preciation of his devoted service to the Society's welfare during 
"the three years of his presidency, and in recognition of his sue- 
"cessful zeal for its prosperity. 

"And that a committee be appointed by the chair to advise 
"the Society in the matter. 

The Chair thereupon appointed as such committee the 
following gentlemen : 

Morgan J. O'Brien 
David McCIure Daniel F. McMahon 

Stephen Farrelly John Stewart 

William N. Penney Bartholomew Moynahan 

The committee, after consultation, reported to the So- 
ciety as its recommendation that Judge O'Gorman be in- 
vited to accept a dinner of the society to be given in his 
honor, at Delmonico's, on Tuesday evening, February 
3rd, 1903. 

The report was unanimously adopted and the com- 
mittee continued with full power to carry into effect the 
wishes of the Society. 



The Dinner took place at Delmonico's, Fifth Avenue 
and Forty-fourth Street, on February 3rd, 1903, and dur- 
ing the proceedings a solid silver service was presented 
to Judge O'Gorman. The following members and guests 
were present : 



DAIS. 



Hon. James Fitzgerald 

Justice of the Supreme Court 

President 



Hon. James A. O'Gorman 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

Hon. Edward Patterson 
Justice of the Appellate Di- 
vision, Supreme Court 

Hon. Frank C. Laughlin 
Justice of the Appellate Di- 
vision, Supreme Court 

Hon. Henry A. Gildersleeve. 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

Hon. James S. Coleman 

Col. David McClure 



Hon. Charles H. Van Brunt 
Presiding Justice of the Ap- 
pellate Division, Supreme 
Court, First Department 

Hon. Samuel Sloan 
Rev. Charles McCready 
Hon. Edward W. Hatch 
Justice of the Appellate Di- 
vision, Supreme Court 

Hon. Charles H. Truax 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

Hon. Francis M. Scott 
Justice of the Supreme Court 



Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien, 
Justice of the Appellate Division, Supreme Court 



TABLE A. 



lion. John D. Crimmins 
Rev. Michael J. Lavelle 
Guest 

Hon. James J. Phelan 
M. F. Loughman 
John M. Murphy- 
Laurence J. Callanan 
Rev. Denis P. O'Flynn 
Robert J. Beechinor 
John B. Manning 
Francis L. Manning 
David O'Brien 
William A. Kane 
Peter F. Kane 
F. J. Breslin 
H. A. Metz 
Francis O'Neill 
James A. McGuire 
Patrick Farrelly 
Nicholas J. Barrett 
Hon. Daniel F. Martin. 
Justice, Municipal Court 



Dr. Bryan D. Sheedy 
John J. Delany 
John G. O'Keeffe 
Hon. Miles M. O'Brien 
George H. Fahrbach 
Edgar Murphy 
Philip A. Smyth 
J. P. Caddagan 
Hon. Henry A. Brann 
Dr. James M. Ludden 
James Curi'an 
Robert D. Petty 
Herbert E. Bowen 
F. A. Duneka 
John Slattery 
John R. Slattery 
A. X. Pheland 
Isaac Bell Brennan 
John B. Finn 
Dr. C. E. Byrne 
John J. Rooney 
Stephen Farrelly 



TABLE B. 



Bartholomew Moynahan 
Abraham Gruber 
Thomas Kirkpatrick 
Peter J. Loughlin 
Hon. Leonard A. Giegerich 

Justice of the Supreme Court 
Charles J. Leslie 
John Cotter 
Stephen J. Geoghegan 
Hon. John Whalen 
John B. McDonald 
Louis F. Doyle 
Gilbert G. Thorne 
Edward Hassett 
James J. Nealis 
Harry L. Davis 
Andrew A. McCormick 
Daniel F. Cohalan 
Daniel W. Patterson 
Ambrose F. McCabe 
John M. Scribner 
Col. Richard Deeves 
Frederick A. Burnham 
Warren Leslie 



Hon. John Proctor Clarke 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

Hon. James A. Blanchard 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

Thomas S. Dolan 

William H. Leslie 

Maurice Quinlan 

Henry J. Smith 

John Kirkpatrick 

James Flynn 

Daniel O'Connell 

Charles Blandy 

Edmund L. Mooney 

William S. Gray 

Thomas J. Nealis 

Thomas F. Keogh 

Francis W. Judge, Jr. 

Martin J. White 

Hon. John J. Ryan 

Hon. Charles L. Guy 

Clarence Lexow 

George Burnharn 

Elbert Crandall 

John Stewart 



TABLE C. 



Hon. Edward B. Amend 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

Joseph F. Mulqueen 

Rev. Wm. J. B. Daly 

Rev. E. T. McGinley 

Michael J. Mulqueen 

Hon. Edward E. McCall 
Justice of the Supreme Court 

John Delahunty 

William J. Fanning 

Francis J. Lantry 

Hon. Thomas L. Feitner 

Theodore Connoly 

Alfred J. Talley 

Josiah A. Waller 

Thomas P. Kelly 

Henry J. Braker 

James G. Johnson 

Myles Tierney 

Vincent P. Travers 

Hon. Joseph F. Daly 

John J. Pulleyn 

Ira Leo Bamberger 

Hon. John F. Carroll 



Maurice Untermeyer 

John B. Sexton 

James T. Malone 

Edward R. Carroll 

Emanuel Blumensteil 

Hon. Michael H. Hirschberg, 

Justice of the Supreme Court 
William H. Bradley 
Hon. Rastus S. Ransom 
John J. Kennedy 
Charles F. Walters 
Peter McDonnell 
Bryan L. Kennelly 
Hugh King 
Austin Finegan 
William P. Mitchell 
Adrian T. Kiernan 
P. J. Scully 
F. C. Travers 
Hon. Eugene A. Philbin 
Edward J. McGuirc 
Dr. John P. Davin 
John McClure 
Michael J. Drummond 



TABLE D. 



Dr. C. J. MacGuire 
Hon. Vernon M. Davis 

Justice of the Supreme Court 
Hon. Lewis J. Conlan 

Justice of the City Court 
Murray C. Danenbaum 
Matthew Corbett 
Samuel Saunders 
Hon. James J. Martin 
Philip J. Britt 
John J. Harrington 
Sylvester J. O'SuUivan 
Hon. Charles W. Dayton 
Dr. Francis J. Quinlan 
Dr. John A.spell 
Hon. George J. Gillespie 
Hon. Charles Murray 
Thomas J. Reilly 
Rev. J. A. Shepard 
Michael Blake 
Rev. J. A. Stafford 
Stephen J. McArdle 
Frederick Cromwell 
Julien T. Davies 
W. J. Clarke 

J. L C. 



Hon. John W. Goff 

Recorder of the City of New 
York 
Francis W. Pollock 
Hon. Edward F. O'Dwyer 

Justice of the City Court 
John Fox 
Hon. Francis B. Delahanty 

Justice of the City Court 
Francis Higgins 
John H. Spellman 
Thomas F. Conway 
James Dunne 
Mark W. Brtnen 
Edmond J. Curray 
John McLoughlin 
Florence J. McCarthy 
P. E. Demarest 
Thomas M. Blake 
A. B. Horton 
John P. Dunn 
Thomas C. Blake 
Theodore A. DriscoU 
Charles A. Jackson 
William G. Davies 
Clarke ' 



TABLE E. 



John O'SulIivan 
Lawrence Winters 
John O'Connell 
Owen J. Brady 
Benjamin S. Harmon 
L. T. Fell 
James G. Marshall 
Willard B. Spader 
Frederick Kroehl 
Albert C. Twining 
Dr. Taylor 
Dr. Johnson 
I. R. Benjamin 
M. J. Shanley 
Eugene Kennedy 
Dr. James W. O'Brien 
Otto Strack 
Joseph P. Day 
Emmet J. Murphy 
Hon. Thomas C. O'SulIivan 
Col. George W. McNulty 
Hon. Frank T. Fitzgerald 
Surrogate of New York 

Hon. Daniel 



Frederick Holbrook 

Hon. D. Cady Herrick 

Justice of the Supreme Court 
William Temple Emmet 
William N. Penney 
Hon. Thomas J. Dunn 
Hon. William L. Brown 
Edward D. Farrell 
Thomas Byrnes 
John P. O'Brien 
Hon. George M. Pinney 
Laurence T. Fell, Jr. 
Joseph L. Cliver 
F'ank A. McHugh 
Col. William E. Paine 
William H. Hurst 
Thomas F, McAvoy 
John H. McCarty 
William V. Creighton 
Hon. William E. Burke 
Charles W. Buchholz 
Bernard Naughton 
Hon. Charles F. Murphy 
F. McMahon 



TABLE F. 



Herald 
Sun 
Times 

Irish-American 
Sunda}' Democrat 
John F. Doherty 
John J. Dowdney 
Dr. Charles J. Perry 
W. J. Woods 
WilHam F. Clare 
Rev. Joseph F. Smith 
Dr. Daniel J. Donovan 
Denis A. Spellissy 
P. Gallagher 
Hon. John B. McKean 
Judge of the Court of Spe- 
cial Sessions. 

Hon. John M. Tierney 
Justice, Municipal Court 

Hon. Joseph P. Fallon 
Justice, Municipal Court 



Tribune 

World 

American 

Press 

Irish-World 

Michael J. Koran 

Daniel J. Early 

Timothy J. Hayes 

Joseph P. McHugh 

Roderick J. Kennedy 

Edward J. Gavegan 

Timothy J. M. Murray 

William J. Broderick 

James J. Duffy 

Col. Patrick Kiernan 

John T. Booth 

Willis P. Dowd 

Matthew F. Donohue 

John J. Lenehan 



14 

Canapes Pimolivars 

Consomme Daumont 
Green Turtle 

Bressoles Chateaubriand 

Saddle of Mutton, English Style 

8AUTERNE BrAISED CeLERY 

SHERRY 

CHAMPAGNE jEtttrfP 

CHAT. COUFFRAN TeRRAPIN BALTIMORE 

MINERAL 

LIQUEURS 

ciQARs SHERBET WITH RUM 

CIGARETTES 

Eoaat 
Red-head Duck with Hominy and Jelly 

Chaud-froid of Mauviettes 
Chicory Salad 

Fancy Ice Cream 

Assorted Cakes Pyramids 

Coffee 



15 



REMARKS OF MR. JUSTICE JAMES 
FITZGERALD 

The coffee having been served and cigars Hghted, The 
President rapped for order and said: 

Gentlemen of the Society and Guests: I rejoice exceed- 
ingly that I am called upon for the first time to preside over 
a public celebration of our association which is assembled for 
the purpose of doing honor to a worthy fellow member, our 
retiring President, whose administration has been productive 
of the most brilliant results. (Applause.) And when he looks 
around this assemblage to-night and sees the approval with 
which he is greeted upon all sides, your appearance and de- 
meanor speak with an eloquence of which words are incapable 
and assure him of the secure position that he has in your affec- 
tions and regard. (Applause.) 

Our Society is an old one. Its early days bring us back to 
the time when the founders of the government were struggling 
with the problems of their times and when the question of 
the permanency of republican institutions was still an open and 
debatable one. There never was a time in all the long interven- 
ing years that the Sons of St. Patrick have not been true to 
the flag of Washington. (Applause.) The prayers of our 
people, who never have seen the shores of Columbia, have pe- 
titioned Heaven for its protection. Thousands of those who have 
had the privilege of living within this great nation have sac- 
rificed their lives in its defense. Wherever a native of the green 
isle looks out into the darkness of the February sky to-night, 
reverently wondering at the marvelous mechanism that con- 
trols the movements of the universe, if his thoughts wander 
for a second to home or to liberty, his prayer goes forth to the 
Omnipotent One, and if that silent prayer could be illuminated 
it would read "God bless America, the home of the free and 
the hope of the oppressed." (Applause.) 

But we are not assembled to-night for the purpose of cele- 
brating any national event ; we are here to pay a personal 



i6 



compliment. James A. O'Gorman (applause) is a native of 
the City of New York and all his life has been spent within 
its boundaries. Without having particular advantages, he en- 
tered into the struggle of life with the opportunities that are 
open to all in this community and by perseverance, pluck and 
manly worth, he has won a position for himself which it is given 
to but few to attain. Educated in our schools, in the dawn of his 
early manhood he allied himself with one or other of the great 
political organizations that from time to time control and model 
the policy upon which our national, state and local governments 
are administered. He also quickly and consistently identified 
himself with every movement in this city since his youth for 
the welfare of the race from which he sprang. Many phases 
of his life will be spoken of to-night by gentlemen selected by 
the committee for such purposes. I will confine myself to speak- 
ing of him as the president of this patriotic society. I might 
state for the benefit of the strangers who are among us that 
the chief quality looked to by the members when they are se- 
lecting a president is modesty. If you doubt me, let me call your 
attention to both ends of the table : we have Brother McClure 
on one end and Brothers O'Brien and Coleman upon the other, 
(Laughter.) I do not for a moment say that Judge O'Gorman 
is a particularly emphatic representative of this disease — or 
virtue — depending upon the standpoint from which you look at 
it, but I do say that in this as well as in all other respects 
he maintains a more than respectable general average. (Ap- 
plause.) 

When Judge O'Gorman was called to the presidency of this 
Society, it was in an exceedingly flourishing condition. The ad- 
ministration of Judge O'Brien for three years (applause) had 
brought the Society forward in a great many directions ; the 
nrembership had increased until the question of limitation became 
paramount, our dinners afforded Delmonico an opportunity at 
least once a year of illustrating how all Irishmen would live un- 
der proper conditions (laughter and applause) ; and our quarter- 
ly meetings, from being ordinary routine affairs, became oc- 
casions of the keenest pleasure and enjoyment. But particu- 
larly by the action taken at that time in connection with the 
volunteers who were going into the service of the United States 
for the Spanish War we were brought into close touch and 
sympathy with our people and for the first time in its long 



17 

history the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick was taken out of the 
circumscribed limits in which it had previously acted and was 
toned up to high patriotic and national standards. (Applause.) 

It is to the credit of Judge O'Gorman that the burden of 
duty that devolved upon him by having the leadership of such 
an organization under such circumstances placed upon his shoul- 
ders has been magnificently discharged. (Applause.) Our roll 
of membership to-night is up to the limit and we have a long 
list of worthy candidates waiting for an opportunity to be ad- 
mitted within the circle. 

Judge O'Gorman, during the time that he occupied the pres- 
idency of the Society, has the credit of securing for us inter- 
national recognition. You will remember that a few months ago 
when the delegation appointed by the' French Government to 
assist at the unveiling of the monument to Rochambeau at 
Washington visited this country, it was proposed that this So- 
ciety should entertain them, and you all recall the brilliant and 
glorious evening that we had on the occasion that they were 
here. (Applause.) The exiles of Erin, so to speak, as hosts in 
America, were permitted to welcome with Irish hospitality their 
French friends to an American banquet in celebration of a 
joint triumph over British aggression. (Applause.) The memo- 
ries of Aughrim and Limerick, Landon and Fontenoy, Mon- 
mouth and Yorktown were revived. (Applause.) 

While Judge O'Gorman is entitled to praise for those things, 
he is also entitled to great credit for keeping the national 
character of our association up to the most advanced standard. 
Ireland, a Nation, was ever his watchword and when occasion 
presented itself he deemed it a labor of love to declare and re- 
declare that sentiment. It was a sentiment connected with every 
fibre of his being, inherited from a patriotic ancestry, a senti- 
ment that time could not obliterate nor tyranny destroy. (Ap- 
plause.) 

We have to-night at this board a number of gentlemen who 
will speak upon other aspects of the distinguished career of our 
guest. I will ask you to manifest your admiration and regard 
for him by drinking his health and vociferously cheering his 
name. 

The toa.st was heartily responded to, the entire com- 
p.iny rising, cheering repeatedly, and then singing, "For 



i8 



He Is a Jolly Good Fellow." The demonstration con- 
tinued until the President again exercised his gavel in 
creating order. 

The President: Gentlemen, we will vary the usual 
^custom at gatherings of this kind, and the response of 
the guest of the evening will be deferred until later, 
after certain other interesting details of the evening are 
carried out. Meanwhile, it is my great pleasure to call 
upon one of the ex-presidents of the Society to speak to 
you. I do not know with what particular sentiment 
I will associate his name, but if from his long connec- 
tion with this body and his deep reading into its history, 
he can give us some matters of interest connected with 
its past, I would suggest such to him. 
' I call upon our friend upon my right — Mr. David 
McClure. (Applause.) 

Mr, McClure, who was warmly received, said : 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Friendly Sons of 
St. Patrick : Of course, the dominant note in the harmony of 
this occasion is that one which sounds the praises of our retiring 
President, Judge O'Gorman, and tells of the splendid service 
which he has rendered to this Society. But it seems to me that 
upon an occasion like this, which is somewhat in the nature of a 
family gathering, lacking some of those formalites and condi- 
tions connected with our St. Patrick's Day dinners — ^that another 
note should accompany that one of praise to Judge O'Gorman; 
one perhaps sounding less loudly, but yet which adds to the music 
of the occasion ; a note which denotes the dignity of the position 
which he has held with so much success; which tells of the 
past of the Society, how it was made up, and what manner of 
men it was created it and constituted its membership in its 
early days when success was not easy of attainment. And it is 
proper also, "Lest we forget" what we owe to the men who, in 
the early days of this Society nurtured and brought it to the 
position which it held while Judge O'Gorman presided over it 



19 

On the twenty-fifth day of November, 1783, the last British 
Soldier departed from the shores of our city, the British flag 
which had been nailed to the flagpole of Fort George was hauled 
down, the American flag was run up in its place, and the Con- 
tinental Army entered the city. It was led by George Washing- 
ton, then an honorary member of the Hibernian Society of Phila- 
delphia. At his side rode Governor and General George Clinton, 
the son of an Irishman; and the advance battalion was com- 
manded by General Henry E. Knox, also the son of an Irishman. 
In the atmosphere which was produced by these conditions, in the 
atmosphere of liberty and of Constitutional government which 
followed the advent of the American army into its final posses- 
sion of New York City, was born the Society of the Friendly 
Sons of St. Patrick, it holding its first annual banquet on the 
seventeenth day of March, 1784. That Society which was or- 
ganized amid all the difficulties which we may imagine sur- 
rounded its organizers was formed of the best citizenship then 
known to the City of New York. Of its founders, Daniel Mc- 
Cormick, who for twenty-five years held the office of its President, 
was one of the great merchants of the city, the last one of them 
to hold his residence in Wall street, a nian as liberal with his 
money in aid of American projects and charities, as he was de- 
voted to the interests of the Irish people. And there was Alexan- 
der Macomb, one of the great property holders not only of the 
city but of the State also, whose son attained the proud position 
of Commander-in-Chief of the American armies following a vic- 
tory over the English forces in the war of 1812, — and William 
Constable, whose name has come down to us of this day as one 
of the merchant princes of his time. These men, with others 
as prominent, who, a writer of old New York has said, were 
"the cream of the cream" of the society of the New York of their 
day, constituted the small group which organized the Friendly 
Sons of St. Patrick. 

Of course, there had been celebrations of St. Patrick's Day 
before the formation of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, but 
they were spasmodic attempts, chiefly limited to celebrations had 
by soldiers of the British army — and I need not say that cele- 
brations of St. Patrick's Day by soldiers of the British army 
necessarily could not succeed. (Laughter.) And this Society 
has gone on to this day, passing through troublous times, for- 
eign and civil wars, when money was scarce among its members. 



days of famine in Ireland, and when there were active societies 
in opposition, and to-day has reached the proud position when 
all of the prominent Irishmen and Irish-Americans of this city 
are united in this Societ}^ as Irishmen should be united every- 
where, upholding its past and anxious to provide that its future 
shall be eminently successful. (Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, I want to call your attention, for a moment, 
to the men who constituted and who made up the life of this 
Society. Just as riches, force, power and armies do not con- 
stitute a State, but men, high minded men do, so the success and 
greatness of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick have been due to 
the eminent men of high character and public renown who have 
been of it. I venture to say that no national society in the City of 
New York can present a list of members and of officers equalling 
in distinction in the citizenship of New York those whose names 
can be found upon our roll. I have mentioned the names of 
some of the founders of the Society, the organizers of it when it 
was a weak body striving for existence. When, in 1828, De Witt 
Clinton died, he had for almost forty years held it as a matter 
of the greatest pride that he was an active member of the 
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. (Applause.) He was nephew to 
General George Clinton ; grandson of an Irishman ; was Mayor of 
New York when that office carried with it the performance of the 
most important and highest judicial duties; was Governor of the 
State of New York and a Senator of the United States represent- 
ing that State; and the father of the Erie Canal, which united 
the waters of the great Lakes to the waters of the Atlantic 
Ocean. 

In 181 5, two men whose names should be written in large type 
on the pages not only of Irish history but of the history of this 
city and State, became members of the Friendly Sons of St. Pat- 
rick — Dr. William James MacNeven and Thomas Addis Emmet. 
(Applause.) Exiled for participation in the movement of 1798 
—a movement in which the people of Ireland were united from 
one end of that country to the other, irrespective of conditions 
or circumstances as they have not been united until to-day — 
these two men, after having been imprisoned, came to this coun- 
try. Dr. MacNeven was one of the most famous physicians of 
his day, not only in his native country but in New York, where 
he led the physicians in the colleges and hospitals with which 
he was connected. He was active in matters affecting our city 



and country, and ever a public spirited citizen. Thomas Addis 
Emmet, a great lawyer in Ireland, participated in the defense of 
men charged with crime under the 1798 Acts, and in defending 
one of them was courageous enough in open court to take the 
oath for having taken which as a member of a society his client 
was charged with crime. Those were the times that tried men's 
souls. Thomas Addis Emmet became famous in this city and 
State, was one of the leaders of the Bar becoming Attorney-Gen- 
eral of the State, and when he died the most prominent officials, 
the Governor and Chancellor of the State, the Mayor of the city, 
and the Judges of the United States and State Courts bore his 
pall, while all of its citizens participated in the grief attending his 
demise. And those two men, comrades in their services and 
exile for Ireland, in their efforts to benefit and uphold their 
adopted country, and in their membership of this Society, in 
death were not separated. Facing Broadway, in the graveyard of 
historic St. Paul's are reared the columns upon which are noted 
their services to their native country and to their adopted land, 
flanking on either side the tablet which perpetuates the mem- 
ory of that other great Irishman, who fell at the siege of Quebec. 
General Richard Montgomery. (Applause.) 

The greatest lawyer of the century which has just closed was 
for many years a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick — 
that man to whom the leadership of the Bar not only of this 
city and State but of the whole country was conceded, and whose 
reputation as a great advocate and as a pure public spirited citi- 
zen will live long after the events of to-day are forgotten — 
Charles O'Conor. (Applause.) 

There is a long list of men whose names I could scarcely more 
than mention. There was a group of 1848 men, exiles from their 
native country, among them John B. Dillon, father of John Dil- 
lon, one of the leaders of the Irish Parliamentary movement of 
to-day, who came to this city, attained an honorable place at the 
Bar, and returned to Ireland to die among his kindred. There 
was John Savage, the poet and writer of Irish history, charming 
companion, and worthy member of the Sons of St. Patrick. And 
there was that brilliant, magnetic orator, one of the bravest of 
American soldiers, Thomas Francis Meagher. "Meagher of the 
Sword." whose green plume waved at the head of the Irish 
Brigade in the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. (Applause.) 

.-\nd there were bankers, merchants, lawyers and artists like 



Dominick Lynch, Stewart Brown, Henry Hilton, John E. Devlin, 
Richard S. Emmet, a relative of Thomas Addis Emmet, Patrick 
Sarsfield Gilmore, and that dear friend of our later days for 
whose untimely death our tears are hardly yet dried, that great 
lawyer and judge, Frederick Smyth. These were of the members 
in the ranks of the Society. 

Who were the presidents, the men who were chosen to lead 
the splendid body whose list contained names such as I have 
called to your attention, and others equally eminent? After 
McCormack and Constable and Macomb there came Hugh Gaine, 
John Chambers, Dr. Robert Hogan, Joseph Stuart and Henry 
L. Hoguet, and then one who I think was the greatest orator I 
ever heard, Richard O'Gorman. (Applause.) He was prominent 
at our Bar, served the city as Counsel to the Corporation, and 
later Judge of the Superior Court. I hope, gentlemen, my mem- 
ory will never lose the beautiful impression it holds with refer- 
ence to the oratory of Mr. O'Gorman. That erect, graceful 
form, classic head, flashing eye — the dignity of his utterance, 
the clearness of his enunciation, and above all, the melody of his 
voice, all of these constituted him the most perfect orator I have 
ever heard. Wendell Phillips, in his lecture on Daniel O'Connell, 
quoted John Randolph of Roanoke, himself an orator of great 
repute, as saying when he heard O'Connell, "this is the man, 
these are the lips, the most eloquent that speak English in my 
day." And then Phillips, referring to the solemnity of Webster, 
the magnetism of Prentiss and the graces of Clay, said that 
putting them all together they did not surpass O'Connell as an 
orator, and none of them equalled him. I have heard Phillips 
and Sumner, Beecher and Dougherty, Conklin and Ingersoll, and 
many others of renown, and I say that putting them all together 
they did not surpass Richard O'Gorman as an orator, and none of 
them equalled him. (Applause.) 

Following Mr. O'Gorman in the presidency came the two 
Bradys, the elder, James T., witty and brilliant, who stood in 
the front rank and was the darling of the Bar, so much so that 
I have heard Edwards Pierrepont say that the whole Bar, would 
rise in his defense if one hair of his curly head was touched 
(applause) ; and his only little less distinguished brother. Judge 
John R. Brady. There was Hugh J. Hastings, one of the bright- 
est minds in journalism of his day, who had the faculty of mak- 
ing a dead newspaper live, and who himself embodied all that 



»3 



was charming in a brilliant and cultivated Irishman. There was 
Thomas Barbour, a prominent merchant and manufacturer, and 
that great American citizen who never failed in practical moral 
and financial support of Ireland's cause, Eugene Kelly. (Ap- 
plause.) Mr. Kelly's devotion to the society was so great that 
when he laid down its presidency he became and continued to be, 
because we were proud to have him, our treasurer until the last 
day of his life. And there was our friend so active in every 
cause he enlisted in, carrying with him a delightful freshness and 
enthusiasm, Joseph J. O'Donohue. There was another whose 
life, I think, touched the life of all that was best in New York in 
his day, best in everything that was intellectual and professional 
during the fifty and more years that he was a member of the 
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, who received more honors pro- 
fessionally than any other man of his time — Chief Justice Charles 
P. Daly. The friend of Washington Irving, William Cullen 
Bryant, William M. Thackeray and of all of the great intellectu- 
al lights of his time, there have been in the century just past no 
such assemblages of lawyers, and judges to do honor to any one 
lawyer as have gathered in honor of Charles P. Daly. He was 
for twelve years president of this Society, and his delightful 
reminiscences of its early days, are something not readily for- 
gotten. He outlived all the friends of his early and middle life, 
and felt, as I heard him express it in the language of Moore's 
beautiful poem: 

"Like one who treads alone 
Some banquet hall deserted, 

Whose lights are fled, 

Whose garlands dead. 
And all but he departed !" 

(Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, these men, members and presidents, of whom. 
I have spoken, are all dead. All have joined the great majority. 

"Have drunk their cup a round or two before, 
And one by one crept silently to rest." 

There should be no gathering of the Friendly Sons of St. 
Patrick, where the Irish spirit of gratitude and aflfection should 



24 

not be strongly expressed in behalf of the men who have digni- 
fied and illuminated the Society by their membership. 

And there are living ex-presidents who have had much to do 
with the past of this Society. 

Gentlemen of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Presi- 
dent's speech has called to your attention the fact that the great 
Constitutional government of this country was built step by step 
with the growing life of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. The 
Constitution of the United States was adopted only two or three 
years after the organization of the Friendly Sons. I do not mean 
to say that it was adopted because of the organization of our So- 
ciety, but, as the President has said, the Friendly Sons have al- 
ways been deeply interested in and formed an important part of 
the growth of this country. I am reminded that although we 
have five' living ex-presidents, not including Judge O'Gorman, 
the United States has but one living ex-president, and he has 
honored our board with his presence. I hope you will pardon 
the digression of a moment, while I say that the events of the 
last few weeks, when two or three of the great governments of 
the Old World have set their war dogs upon a little South Ameri- 
can Republic to collect a few miserable dollars of indebtedness, 
remind us that that living ex- President of the United States was 
the man who sent thundering across the Atlantic that message, 
with reference to that same Republic, which startled the people of 
the Old V/orld. (Conttinued applause and cheers for Grover 
Cleveland.) It was his message which brought the governments 
and the peoples of the Old World, for the first time, to a realiza- 
tion of the fact that the government and people of this country 
knew their rights and dared assert them. And it required only 
the experience of the Spanish-American War for them to realize 
that we were not only a nation of the first class, to be respected, 
but to be feared and cultivated. The cultivation has been going 
on ever since. (Applause.) 

As to the living ex-presidents, good taste demands that there 
should be but a word. Judge O'Gorman's predecessor in the 
office of president is one to whom you all have given the compli- 
ment of great applause ; one who has secured not only an 
abiding name and fame as Judge of the Supreme Court and of its 
Appellate Division, but who has secured to an amazing extent 
a place in the warmest affections of every man who knows him. 
That man is Judge Morgan J. O'Brien. (Applause.) Judge 



25 

O'Brien's immediate predecessor was James S. Coleman, whose 
interest in this Society is only equalled by his interests in Irish 
affairs generally, and who will long be remembered not only as 
having been president of this Society but also as having been 
President of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish lan- 
g^uage. (Applause.) And just before him ruled John D. Crim- 
mins, whose energy and service in behalf of the Society of the 
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick seem to be unlimited, and who 
has added to our indebtedness to him by recently becoming its 
historian. (Applause.) Back of the term of office of Mr. Crim- 
mins' immediate predecessor there extends a gap of 33 years 
until we touch the time when Samuel Sloan was president of 
the Society. (Applause.) Becoming a member in 1843, he was 
its president in 1857 and 1858. At that time he was and ever 
since has been one of the most distinguished men in the financial 
and commercial world of our city, and otherwise connected with 
many large corporations. To-day, having reached the age of four 
score and five years, this "grand old man of our Society" is still 
devoted to its interests, the only diversion that he permits himself 
outside of his family life being his attendance at the annual ban- 
quets of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. 

The chief anxiety of our living ex-presidents is that the num- 
ber shall not decrease. I have not included Judge O'Gorman 
among the living ex-presidents. His glory as a President does not 
terminate until the end of this banquet. How well he has served 
the Society your presence here to-night attests, including as it 
does his associates, distinguished judges of the Supreme Court 
and of the Appellate Division of that Court, testifying to the re- 
spect and esteem in which Judge O'Gorman is held, and more 
particularly to his splendid administration of the office of Presi- 
dent of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. (Applause.) And 
we note with pleasure the presence of the presiding judge of the 
Appellate Division, whose long service of many years, marks 
him with distinction. I want to say for the benefit and con- 
solation of his Democratic friends, if by chance there be any 
Democrats here, that his democracy is as pure and strong as 
ever, notwithstanding a recent apparent leaning in favor of 
trusts. (Laughter.) 

May I not say that of the past of our Association, and its 
splendid membership, we should be proud, and, using the lan- 
guage of Webster in his famous reply to Hayne. of South Caro- 



26 



lina, in reference to Massachusetts, exclaim: "The past at least 
is secure." 

Here is a good place for me to stop, because there are others to 
follow me who desire to speak of our Society and of Judge O'Gror- 
man. Seumas McManus, who writes so charmingly of Irish peas- 
ant life, tells of a jaunting car driver who pursued his vocation in 
one' of the small towns of Ireland. He was accustomed whenever 
the bishop of the diocese arrived to visit the parish priest to 
convey him to the rectory. Upon one occasion the bishop, upon 
arriving, was met by a carriage sent specially by the priest to con- 
vey him to his house, and the bishop said to the jaunting car dri- 
ver, "I am very sorry, Larry, but I cannot take you to-day, because 
if I did Father Dan would be offended, having sent his carriage 
for me," whereupon Larry, very much disappointed and a little bit 
resentful also, said, "It's all right, your lordship, but you tell 
Father Dan that I would be the last man in the world to go up 
to the altar and take the words out of his mouth." (Laughter.) 
Now, I would be the last man in the world to take the words out 
of the mouths of Judges Patterson, O'Brien or O'Gorman. 

A countryman once went to a sales-stable to buy a trotter. 
He was shown horses that in the past had accomplished a great 
deal, making records, and others of whom a great deal was ex- 
pected. At the close of the inspection he said, "You have been 
showing me has-beens and will-bes; what I want is an is-er." 
Judge O'Gorman for some years has been an "is-er" in the 
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. After to-night he will be a "has- 
been;" the prerogative and functions of a has-been president of 
the Society is, in the slang of the day, to "go way back and sit 
down." 

It will probably be different with Judge O'Gorman. John 
Mitchell said of Henry Grattan and his family, that the Grat- 
tans were an influential family who could raise ten thousand men. 
and I say that the O'Gormans are a family of orators. Therefore 
Judge O'Gorman will be compelled to come to the front. As one 
of the has-beens of this Society, I welcome him to our ranks. 
But for him I promise that the same zeal and intelligence which 
he has heretofore shown, and all of his influence and eloquence, 
will always be at the service of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. 
(Applause.) 



37 

The President : Gentlemen, we are deeply indebted 
to the last speaker for the beautiful and reminiscent 
truths he has given us. In one of the stories that he 
told at the end of his speech he alluded to a bishop and 
a parish priest. The Most Reverend Archbishop of 
this diocese would be glad to be with us to-night to do 
honor to our retiring president if his engagements had 
permitted, but in his place we have a most distinguished 
parish priest, a gentleman who belongs to the old class 
of devoted clergymen that are alluded to in the old land 
as Soggarth aroon ; a student of the great theological 
institution in Ireland, Maynooth College, and an in- 
structor in the Theological College of Maryland, in the 
United States. This gentleman is the pastor and long 
personal friend of Judge O'Gorman, and I ask him to 
speak to the sentiment of "Judge O'Gorman as a Neigh- 
bor, a Friend and a Parishioner." I have now the great 
pleasure of introducing the Reverend Doctor Charles 
McCready. (Applause.) 

Doctor McCready, who was warmly applauded, said: 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Friendly Sons: T 
regret very much that your Chairman when speaking of the 
modesty of Judge O'Gorman did not recall the fact that 
the Judge is not the only modest man in this assemblage ; he is 
not the only "pebble" in the matter of modesty. I am sure that 
my modesty is exceedingly well known, and I am sorry that I 
have to proclaim it here myself. I did not know, until I came 
upon this platform, that I was expected to address the distin- 
guished audience that appears before me here this evening. 
When your Chairman informed me just now, I said to him: "I 
am sorry that you did not tell me before, because I might have 
been able to find something to say about my friend Judge O'Gor- 
man," and he said, "Well, you know a good deal about him, and 
he is a man of family, and with a very large family, too ;" and 
I said "Yes ; but among the people from whom Judge O'Gor- 



28 



man is descended, that is not a unique distinction, thank God." 
(Laughter.) The presence of the thousands of Irishmen and 
Irish descendants in New York is proof of what I have just 
said. However, I did not wish to run any danger of contempt of 
court, hence I am on my feet now. You can see how dangerous it 
would have been. Even in my friend Judge Conlin's court, con- 
tempt of court would be a very serious thing; but to be guilty of 
contempt of the highest court we have in this city, and in the pres- 
ence of all these gentlemen on the Bench, would be something my 
respect for authority would not permit me to do, and so I will try 
to say something for my friend Judge O'Gorman. 

I am pastor of Holy Cross Church — I don't know as you all 
know it, but I may as well tell it to you now. A certain news- 
paper man in this city, a friend of ours, generally on such occa- 
sions as this, represents the pastor of Holy Cross Church as 
standing with a hand on the head of each of "his two boys," 
Judge O'Brien and Judge O'Gorman. Holy Cross parish has the 
unique honor of having sent two of its sons to the bench of the 
Supreme Court of this city. That is a marked distinction ; 
and I do not know which of them deserves my paternal blessing 
the more. I might almost add "How happy I'd be with either if 
t'other dear charmer were gone." (Laughter.) 

My relations with Judge O'Gorman, however, have been later 
and longer continued, because, when Judge O'Brien changed his 
life, he went off to another part of the city, and Judge O'Gorman 
came nearer, when he took that charming lady for wife, who has 
been the inspiration of his life, and who has been his worthy help- 
meet and solace all these years. (Applause.) 

It is not for me to speak of the relations that exist between the 
pastor and individual members of his flock; they are too sacred 
to speak of thus in the presence of the world ; but I may say 
that Judge O'Gorman, for the time that he has been a member 
of Holy Cross parish, has been the right-hand of the pastor and 
the leader in all affairs undertaken for the church or its charities. 
I will say of him that he not only is a distinguished judge, but a 
pious, practical, Catholic Christian. (Applause.) You will 
excuse me, then, my dear friends, if I do not say much of him 
in his presence; warned, as you have been, by the Chairman, of 
his modesty, I will not bring that blush to his face which I feel 
would be embarrassing if I said more complimentary things 
about him. 



29 

We are asssembled here to-night to do honor to Judge O'Gor- 
man, not simply because he has been a distinguished rriember of 
the Bar or a conscientious Judge upon the Bench ; but we are 
here to join in a paean of praise to him as he descends from the 
lofty position that he has occupied here among you. It is not 
for me to say, either, what he has done for the Friendly Sons of 
St. Patrick. Some say there is nothing in a name. I believe a 
celebrated author has said so. But there is a great deal in it 
The name of "The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick" surely means 
something more than is generally understood to be, a merely social 
organization. One has only to attend the annual meeting and 
banquet to learn the object for which it was instituted. And 
Judge O'Gorman, following up the lead that Judge O'Brien and 
the others have set him, has done a great deal in the right direc- 
tion for this association of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He 
has — I will not say instilled into you — but he has called forth 
and aroused perhaps, more than ever has been done before, that 
spirit of patriotism and love of the old land that is to be found 
dormant, it may be, but present, in the heart of every Irishman 
and the descendant of every Irishman. (Applause.) In season 
and out of season he has had a good word to say for the land 
his father came from, and he has left no stone unturned that 
he might uplift the race that he sprang from, and obtain for it all 
those blessings which God has destined to bestow upon us all. 

There is no doubt that the time has come when a man at the 
head of this influential association, composed as it is principally 
of men of Irish blood, without distinction of creed, will be able 
to accomplish a great deal more than has been yet brought about 
for the bettering of the race. There has been a great deal done, 
and he has done much, but this is a time when a great deal 
more can be done ; because we are now on the eve of realizing 
the long-wished-for desire of every Irish heart, and of every 
man who loves liberty and hates oppression — ^namely, obtaining 
for the Irish people the land in which their fathers have been 
reared, and from which so many of you here have come. 
(Applause.) 

I remember our celebrated orator, Bourke Cockran, some time 
ago, in putting the question to himself, "What is the Irish ques- 
tion," answered it by saying, "The Irish question appears to me 
to be this : That, whereas all other peoples in the world had one 
of two things, either they owned the land on which they lived: 



3° 



or had the making of their own laws, the Irish people had not 
either of them. But now we are coming to obtain that footing 
that will enable us, the Irish people in Ireland and all over the 
world, to realize the grand prayer that has been ascending to 
Heaven for the last seven hundred years, to give them finally 
their beloved land and the rule over their own country. It is a 
comfort to Judge O'Gorman to know that when he steps down 
to-night from the high position of president of the Friendly Sons 
one will succeed him who will carry aloft the banner he has held, 
and, if he has any just hatred of the oppressors of his race, he will 
have the comfort of knowing that he leaves one in his place who 
will bear all that hatred of oppression that inspires heroes and 
makes martyrs. 

I am reminded of the story af an old man who had an enemy 
who had been his foe for life, and on his dying bed the priest came 
to him, and after hearing his confession he asked him if he would 
not forgive that man. "Oh, no, I will not forgive him; he has 
done me so much wrong that I cannot forgive him." The priest 
reminded him that there must be no such feeling; if he would not 
forgive him he could not receive the last Sacraments, and then 
went away. He came back soon, and the old man said: "I 
forgive him. If I must I will forgive him, but I leave it as a 
legacy to my oldest son, that he will follow up and oppress him, 
and if he don't do it I will turn over in my grave and never 
forgive him." And so, I think. Judge O'Gorman can step down 
to-night with the assurance that Judge Fitzgerald will ably 
succeed him and scrupulously carry out his commission. 

I do not know that I can add anything to what has been said 
of Judge O'Gorman. He has all our best thanks on this night 
that he leaves the position that he has occupied with so much 
honor for the past three years ; he has our thanks for what he has 
done, and we wish him success in the grand career into which he 
has raised himself by his own unaided efforts, that he will con- 
tinue to occupy it until he reaches the highest position it is within 
the power of our people to elevate him to. We wish him, there- 
fore, long life, health and happiness, and that it may be his con- 
solation to look back and see the Friendly Sons going along and 
increasing, day by day, in that path that he has marked out with 
so much glory. (Applause.) 



31 

The President : When accidentally I used the 
word "modesty," I assure you that I was entirely in- 
nocent of any malice; but from the manner in which 
the word has taken root, I feel called upon to recognize 
it in some way, and I state to you that we have in the 
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick an element of true mod- 
esty ; as a representative of that element ; its personifica- 
tion, its quintessence, and in that connection, I call now 
upon the member of the Friendly Sons who would 
not be President — Judge Edward Patterson, and give 
him for a subject Native Modesty. (Applause.) 

Mr. Justice Patterson, on rising, was received with en- 
thusiastic applause. He said : 

Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Friendly Sons of St. 
Patrick : I was not aware that I was to be called upon this even- 
ing to say anything to you upon matters connected with the 
Society. It is true that I declined to be your President. The 
first reason I had was peculiarly personal, and that was that I 
would not wear a soup plate on my front, such as decorates the 
expansive bosom of the President. (Laughter.) The second 
was that I desired to impress upon this community a great moral 
lesson, which is that there is here a man of Irish ancestry who 
declined to take an oiifice, no matter how distinguished it may be, 
unless it had profit or emolument connected with it. (Laughter.) 
Still another reason was that I knew what Irishmen are (laugh- 
ter) and what was required from the President of this Society. 
There are two things requisite to make a successful president : 
The first, that the incumbent shall have illimitable gab (laugh- 
ter) — that thing which would qualify him to be a junior senator 
of the United States (laughter), and I did not aspire to that 
distinction. The other, that he should faithfully perform the 
duties of his office. I knew I could not perform those duties ; 
they are purely and essentially gastronomic. (Laughter.) I have 
not the digestion of an ostrich, and my brother Fitzgerald has 
(laughter,) and Judge Morgan J. O'Brien has, and Judge O'Gor- 
man has, and do you think that I would minimize the importance 



32 

of this Society by declining the invitations that come to its Presi- 
dent from other societies, even attracting, as they do, dyspepsia 
and all those evils which threaten a man who presides over this 
body? Look at these wrecks! (Laughter.) Look at these men 
who are physically exhausted by what they have done in their 
day. And then look at my condition. (Laughter.) Are you 
not glad, gentlemen, that I did not accept the Presidency of this 
Society? (Laughter; cries of yes and no.) 

Now, striking a more serious vein, Mr. McClure has referred 
to the Society and to its antecedents, and to what has been 
accomplished by it. He referred to its membership. Those of 
you who are acquainted with its origin know that it was an 
outgrowth of that association which was established in Phila- 
delphia ten years before this Society came into being. Do you 
remember the names of the great men who belonged to that 
Philadelphia organization? Have you read the records of the 
Friendly Sons' Society of Philadelphia ? Do you know that among 
the first names inscribed upon its membership roll was that of 
George Washington? (Applause.) Do you remember the names 
that followed in close succession? Sullivan, Anthony Wayne, 
Montgomery — and every man of them, except Washington, an 
Irishman. (Applause.) That Society after ten years of existence, 
was merged in the Hibernian Society, which still exists to-day 
as a great Irish society of the United States of America. (Ap- 
plause.) Never was an organization formed in the United 
States that included in its active and honorary membership such 
an array of distinguished men as the allied societies of St. 
Patrick and the Hibernian in Philadelphia, and the St. Patrick's 
organization in New York. 

You may talk of those who are here present and what they 
represent, in reference to Ireland and Irish nationality. I have 
sat upon the knees of the men who were at Bantry Bay (ap- 
plause) ; I have received the caresses of those who were on Vine- 
gar Hill (applause) ; I have seen those old-fashioned gentlemen, 
fifty years ago, who then, octogenarians and almost nonogenarians, 
used to recount at my grandfather's house what took place in 
1797 and 1798. (Applause.) There is much that has come down 
traditionally from those old Irishmen, from those men, Catholics 
and Protestants, who stood together (applause) and never made a 
question of faith, but only one of loyalty and duty and right, as 
they conceived it to be, and who, exiles from their native land, 



35 

came over here united as friends, never minding religious differ- 
ences, to help build up the strength and the glory of this great 
country. (Applause.) There is something more than sentiment 
in this — there is historical fact. Take the names of the men, take 
those who stood shoulder to shoulder, through the Revolutionary 
War, to help secure the independence of this country, and you will 
find Catholic Irishmen and Protestant Irishmen, together, not 
only in the field, but in the council chamber, aiding in the rescue 
of this land from the grasp of foreign dominion and in forming 
that government under which we now live and which makes us 
one of the great nations of the world. (Applause.) 

I do not think there is a proper appreciation of what united 
Irishmen can do. They placed this government — I mean helped 
to place it — on the foundations on which it now stands. I have 
mentioned the names of some of the prominent generals of 
Irish birth, who had commands in the Continental Army. Of 
course they were impelled to come here and fight for this country, 
because of their opposition to Great Britain ; that was a sentiment 
which was bred in them deeply, and with it a strong belief that 
there was something else that could govern and control men than 
monarchy; but in revolutionary times, antagonism to those who 
ruled was not altogether personal ; it arose from the belief that 
the great thing that would lift men above the ordinary level, 
strike down the privilege of class and bring the common people 
up to a high standard, was a republican form of government. 
(Applause.) There were no men in the country who did more 
to strengthen the institutions under which we now live and 
which it is our purpose to preserve than the Irishmen who came 
over during the Revolutionary War, or shortly afterwards, and 
their descendants. (Applause.) 

This naturally suggests individual names. Mr. McClure has 
referred to some of them. Those who came over and aided in 
the Revolutionary War were Sullivan, Montgomery. "Mad An- 
thony" Wayne, a man whose name ought to stand foremost among 
them all. and as to whom I feel an especial reverence, because 
iny great-grandfather was an officer in his regiment. (Applause.) 
They were among the men who in those days, fighting for the 
■governmental principle they hoped to see established, rescued it 
.from monarchv. Afterwards came another generation prominent 



34 



in aiding in the establishment of the Constitution of the United 
States, under which we are enjojang to this day the blessings of 
a great, strong and free national government. (Applause.) 

Again as to individuals. Mr. McClure has referred to Emmet. 
to Dr. MacNeven and others; but there is the name of Ferris, 
that you have never heard, perhaps. He was one of those who 
helped to establish this government on a strong foundation. 
There was Duane, who came to this country, settling in Pennsyl- 
vania. Then to come down to a later generation and see what 
Irishmen have done for the City of New York. What is there 
in all the city, in the way of its prosperity and grandeur, which has 
not been contributed to by men of Irish ancestry? Look at 
the list of men who have been strong and great in bringing the 
prestige of the City of New York up to the highest point: In 
the legal profession there were Thomas Addis Emmet, Charles 
O'Conor and James T. Brady, among the greatest advocates 
of our times ; men who have never received the honor which 
ought to have been bestowed upon them — and probably, from 
the evanescence of the lawyer's fame, never will. 

It is all very well to extol ourselves. We are Irishmen, or 
the descendants of Irishmen, and some of us — I myself — the 
fourth generation of American-Irish, and we all of us glory in 
our antecedents ; we all glory in the land from which we or our 
forefathers came. We have received from that land an inheri- 
tance which has not come down to other people, unless it may 
be to some few individuals, as among the Dutch, from whom 
Judge Van Brunt springs. I need not exclude some of them 
from a general panegyric. Some Dutchmen are mildly wise and 
some are stolidly great, and their greatness and wisdom are 
illustrated by the Chief of the Appellate Division of the Supreme 
Court in the First Department. (Laughter.) Then there are 
men of undisclosed ancestry who are here from different parts of 
the State, like Judge Herrick, who sits at the other end of the 
table looking blissfully at me; and so with Judge Hatch and 
Judge Truax, looking in the same way and as if they wished for 
the time being they were Irishmen. (Laughter.) But their ex- 
cellences are individual. We who are of Irish race and descent, 
can trace our pedigrees far back. There is Judge O'Brien. He 
plumes himself on being an O'. His ancestors were kings of some 
place ©r other. And here is Judge O'Gorman, but his ancestors 
were French; he need not masquerade as an undiluted Irishman, 



35 

In his origin, he was a Frenchman ; O'Gorman is "Guerreman," 
and the etymology of that explains itself. (Laughter.) Now, gen- 
tlemen, I have been one of the nominal officers of this Society for 
the past three years, and during that time, I have been the most 
absolutely inefficient man ever connected with its administration. 
I recognize the cordial reception you have given me this evening 
as an Irish tribute to inefficiency. (Laughter.) There is some- 
thing in it so beautiful, so inconsistent, so intensely Irish that I 
cannot help feeling under peculiar obligations. The success of 
this Society for the past three years is attributable to Judge O'Gor- 
man and Mr. Crimmins, and Dr. McGuire and Mr. Rooney. I 
have had nothing to do with it, but I have carefully preserved 
myself from the destruction of my digestion by staying away from 
every dinner to which I was invited, and I have done nothing 
whatever except to add to this particular feast those graces of 
personality, of which you are aware and to which allusion has not 
been made. (Laughter.) But under the administration of Judge 
O'Gorman, this Society has risen to a very high plane. It was 
started on its successful career long before ; it was aided and 
promoted by Judge O'Brien and he. as President of this Society, 
stood in the most conspicuous position that any man 
has occupied in it in our time, except Judge O'Gorman. (Ap- 
plause.) Do you yet understand why I declined the Presidency? 
I could not take the places of those two men ; I could not eat din- 
ners such as they ate ; I would not make speeches such as they 
made; and if I did, I might be subjected to the same peril which 
Judge O'Brien was subjected to, when he made that great speech 
of his four years ago in this very place. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) Then, with spirited eloquence (just at the end of the 
Spanish War), he described the extinction of that race feeling 
which existed formerly between Irishmen and the negro. He told 
in the most glowing terms of the charge up San Juan Hill of 
those negro regiments of the United States, when they went up 
there, if I remember rightly, "with their merry eyes gleaming and 
their white teeth shining, singing as they went, 'Climbing Up the 
Golden Stairs.' " (Laughter and applause.) Do you remember 
the burst of enthtisiasm that followed that speech of his? Why, 
there was not a man there who did not rise to his feet and cheer 
him to the echo. What was his reward? The next day he was 
turned out of a society (to which he never belonged), because his 
remarks were unlrish. Now, do you suppose I was going to ex- 



36 



pose myself to that peril? Never! (Laughter.) And, therefore, 
I did decline to be the President of this Society, knowing full 
well that the gastronomic and oratorical requirements of the posi- 
tion would be better filled by that artistic personage who sits 
there with that soup plate on his bosom, from which he ought to 
eat on the table instead of having it on his chest, and I modestly 
r^ired to that privacy which Mr. McClure has recommended and 
which I am very glad to share with him. 

I congratulate Judge O'Gorman and the other gentlemen upon 
the service they have rendered the Society, and I only wish for 
Judge Fitzgerald and those who follow him, the same measure of 
success that his and their predecessors have had, and I trust that 
they will receive, at the end of their respective terms, a similar 
demonstration of confidence and love to that shown Judge O'Gor- 
man this evening. (Applause.) 

The President: Gentlemen, I cannot challenge any 
assertion made by Judge Patterson, neither can I dis- 
pute any statement of Judge O'Gorman, and conse- 
quently I find myself in a dilemna ; because when I asked 
Judge O'Gorman, in the innocence and confidence of 
my heart how it was that he managed to preserve his 
health and attend so many public dinners, he con- 
fidingly placed his arm upon my shoulder, and said : 
"Don't have any trouble upon that score; I had none. 
It was always a race between the First and Second Vice- 
Presidents to see which could represent me." (Laughter). 

Gentlemen, we will now listen to Dr. Constantino 
J. MacGuire, who so faithfully served as our second 
vice-president during the past three years, and whose 
fidelity to duty was recognized and admired by all of 
our members. I will ask him to explain, if he can, how 
Judge O'Gorman's statements to me and Judge Patter- 
son's to you, can be reconciled. Gentlemen, I present 
Dr. MacGuire. 



^7 



Doctor MacGuire, who was warmly received, said: 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : If I say, as has been said by 
the gentlemen who have preceded me and who have given such an 
exhibition of extempore eloquence, that I have not been notified 
that I was to be one of the speakers to-night, you will possibly 
question my veracity — not that anything I may say can have any 
claim to eloquence. Judge Patterson, in the modest way peculiar 
to the Supreme Court, said that he lacked the one essential attri- 
bute necessary to satisfactorily fill the position of President of this 
Society — "the gift of gab" — but he has sufficiently satisfied me, and 
you also, gentlemen, that with very little training he would be well 
fitted to more than grace the office. I feel a little embarrassed 
just now, because the talking in my profession as distinguished 
from my legal brethren, is not done in public ; and what we do 
say in private is appreciated as sincere and so accepted. 

Here to-night, at this meeting of the Friendly Sons, I feel some 
what like a young and bashful girl I once heard of, going through 
a ball-room seemingly seeking something. She was accosted by a 
good-looking, obliging young man who said : Miss, are you look- 
ing for something or anybody ; can I help you ?" 

And she said : "Yes, sir ; I am looking for a son-in-law for my 
mother." (Laughter.) I find that I am looking for something to 
say that might interest you after the feast of eloquence you have 
enjoyed. 

For three years I have enjoyed intimate close association with 
Judge O'Gorman and my other fellow-officers of the Society. I 
have had many opportunities of becoming familiar w-ith the work 
done by Judge O'Gorman ; I have admired his tact and diplomacy 
— and both were often called into requisition. The Judge in 
counsel was always ready, practical and governed by sound 
common sense, the result of experience and observation. Judge 
O'Gorman during his term of office as President of the Friendly 
Sons of St. Patrick, was abstemious except in the way of coffee, 
though during this time he was holding other offices of great dis- 
tinction in other societies which might well have created bad 
habits. (Laughter.) 

During the past three years, while I have been one of your Vice- 
Presidents — and I thank you for the honor you did me in electing 
me to the position — I had many opportunities of becoming familiar 
with the difficulties which have to be met with bv the President 



3^ 

and officers of this Society in getting up your entertainments. Be- 
fore I became one of your ofiticers and had the opportunity of 
showing "strenuous work" after the style so pleasantly described 
by Judge Patterson, it had always seemed to me a simple thing 
to get up a dinner and a list of after-dinner speakers that would 
satisfy you ! A great mistake — a delusion ! The dinner of itself 
is an easy proposition, but the speakers — why, gentlemen, from 
what I know of you and from what I have heard others say of 
you, j'ou are not the easiest men in the world to satisfy in the way 
of speakers. (Laughter.) 

It has been stated there are so many natural-born orators in 
the Society and so many who believe they are natural-born orators 
(but as yet not discovered), that your Dinner Committee finds 
great difficulty in getting men to accept the invitation to speak 
at our annual banquet ; it is not criticism they say, they fear, but 
comparison. (Laughter.) In listening to the speeches to-night. 
I have been particularly struck by what was said by Mr. Mc- 
Clure and Judge Patterson about the men of the past who were in 
the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and who, they 
said, gave distinction to the Society by being members of it. I 
was impressed by the thought that no people on the face of the 
globe are more generous in giving due credit to the good deeds 
of the dead, than we. To this we testify in o'ur banquets, wakes 
and orations. In life do we give the merited recognition, the 
helping hand, the word of praise that shows appreciation of work 
well done, the greatest gratification that man can enjoy? I am 
afraid not. 

I am glad on this occasion that we seize the opportunity, while 
Judge O'Gorman is in the fulness of his health and the ripeness 
of his ability, to do honor to the good work he has done. (Ap- 
plause.) Incidentally I might remark in connection with that 
work, that of the functions that took place during the administra- 
tion of President O'Gorman, the most distinguished and success- 
ful was the banquet given to the Rochambeau deputation. 

In connection with that, gentlemen, I might tell you a little 
history that might possibly be of some interest to you. You who 
were present at the May quarterly meeting, remember you ap- 
pointed a committee with power to give this banquet and to make 
it worthy of the Society, our people and the distinguished French 
representatives. You went away rejoicing, saying a good thing 
has been done that will reflect credit on the Friendly Sons and the 



39 

Irish race in America. You thought the trouble was all over and 
that there was nothing to be done except to pass that resolution to 
give full power to the President and his committee. You placed 
upon his shoulders a great responsibility and weight which rested 
heavily on him. I can frankly so testify, as I happened to be 
close to him during all the preparations. 

After we had supposed that there was no question as to the 
success of the banquet, the day being fixed and the speakers 
all invited, we learned that the estimate in which we gentlemen 
held ourselves, was not held by some other people in this country 
and in other countries — in fact, the statement was made that the 
Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York amounted to so little 
socially and financially, that a banquet given by them to the Depu- 
tation would be unworthy of that Deputation or of its national 
character. That was the position your President was in — a most 
embarrassing and humiliating one — but fortunately the good judg 
ment, tact, prudence and wisdom that characterize him on the 
Bench stood by us in the council chamber. It seemed for a time 
as if the banquet would have to be abandoned. Through inter- 
views and consultations with other men than those of the com- 
mittee, and mainly through the influence of Mr. Frank Travers, 
arrangements were made to send a deputation to Washington. 
Unfortunately, Judge O'Gorman's time was then so taken up with 
his judicial duties that he could not head that deputation. How- 
ever, he well considered every detail of the line of action of the 
mission and had us met at the depot by Mr. Frank Gannon, to 
whom we are greatly indebted for a most generous hospitality 
during our stay in Washington. 

The night of our arrival in Washington, interviews were held 
with prominent men of influence ; the situation placed before 
them ; the public programme gone over, where it was so arranged 
your banquet was to commence at 8 o'clock, the Deputation to ar- 
rive from Mr. Whitelaw Reid's luncheon at 8.30 and leave Del- 
monico's at 10 o'clock to be entrained for Boston. No time for 
presentations ; no time for addresses ; no time to tell the Deputa- 
tion and the world why we were giving this banquet ! 

Consider well the ridiculous figure you would have cut in the 
public e>-e; the cartoons and the usual fun that would have been 
made of the Irishmen ! On every side we were confronted by the 
same baneful influence which crops up when anything is likely to 
occur redounding to the credit of our race. 



40 

At one o'clock in the day that programme seemed as immutable 
as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Officialisms told us no 
alteration could be made. We suggested that our function was 
an international one — the Whitelaw Reid a purely personal, social 
one. We were summarily disposed of by being informed that 
ours was of secondary importance, that speeches or addresses at 
such a banquet were entirely uncalled for and might be embar- 
rassing. 

The journals of New York were full of accounts of the prepara- 
tions being made for the banquet ; the names of some of the ora- 
tors who were to speak, were already published, and it was said 
Delmonico would outdo Delmonico by the banquet he would 
serve. Tickets were at a premium. 

Gentlemen, our position was a most unpleasant one, yet it is 
always darkest before the dawn ! A ray of sunshine struck us. 
We were introduced to an honorary member of the Friendly Sons 
of St. Patrick. This member seated in the midst of a group com- 
posed of your committee, patiently and with profound interest 
listened to all the details I gave him of our preparations for the 
banquet; of the difficulties we encountered in New York and 
Washington ; of the hour so fixed for our banquet that it would be 
emasculated. 

He inquired who were to be our special guests, outside of *>!e 
French Deputation ; he asked whether we had invited any of tl. ■ 
descendants of the Irish names that were distinguished in the 
War of the Revolution ; the War of 1812; the War of 1861-1865 
and in the American-Spanish War. He suggested names that we 
had overlooked, and then said: 

"Gentlemen, you are doing a patriotic duty in giving this ban- 
quet; you are giving great help to the Government in properly 
entertaining the Nation's guests, and as far as lies in my power 
to make the banquet a success, I shall do so. It must be a success. 
No private function shall interfere or mar its success." 

In fifteen minutes there was removed from our path every diffi- 
culty — every obstacle that stood in our way to make the banquet 
what it was — the greatest and most successful entertainment your 
Society ever gave. 

Gentlemen, we are all under great obligations to this honorary 
member. He saved us from deep humiliation and ridicule and 
did what he and he alone could do. Let us not wait until he has 



4» 



passed away to express our thanks ! Let us do it now ! The 
Friendly Son who so well stood our friend on that day in Wash- 
ington was Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. 
(Loud cheers.) 

The President: Gentlemen, I ask your close and 
earnest attention. The principal event of the evening 
is about to take place. A banquet of this kind, with all 
its pleasures, soon fades from the memory, but the So- 
ciety is desirous that something should be done to per- 
petuate the sentiments of which this gathering is the 
expression, and have entrusted to Judge O'Brien, who 
is the chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, and 
who organized this dinner, to speak the words that will es- 
tablish in the mind of Judge O'Gorman for many years 
to come recollections of the good feeling he has ex- 
perienced to-night. I have great pleasure in introduc- 
ing Judge Morgan J. O'Brien. (Loud and prolonged 
applause.) 

Mr. Justice O'Brien was received with enthusiastic 
applause. He said: 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Friendly Sons of 
St. Patrick : The purpose of this gathering has been sufficiently 
described, and it is unnecessary for me to add, were I able, any- 
thing to the warm and glowing tribute that has been paid to an 
associate and to a friend. But one could not sit here without 
being struck by the significance of such a gathering brought for 
the purpose of paying honor to one who, though he has distin- 
guished himself as a man, as a lawyer, and as a judge is to-night 
peculiarly honored because of his relations as president and be- 
cause of the work he has done in perpetuating an ancient society. 
(Applause.) As a matter of first impression, this work might 
not seem an adequate cause for such an assemblage, nor a reason 
for such an exceptional compliment; and yet if we go farther and 
deeper into the currents of our social and moral life, we will find 
that a society such as this, which was organized to perpetuate 



42 



the memories of great deeds, which was intended to hand 
down the traditions of a glorious race, — and the men who 
are connected and associated with such a work, are connected 
and associated with that which is highest and best in our lives. 
(Applause.) For wherever we find that there exists a pride in 
achievement, wherever we find that a love of great deeds and 
great names exists, wherever we find an organization that is 
intended to perpetuate the best traditions of a great race, there 
will be found the abiding place of all that is true, and beautiful 
and good. (Applause.) 

This Society, as you have heard, was founded in the very midst 
of the sentiments that grew out of our revolutionary struggle, 
and it has been our custom as each administration succeeds the 
other, and on all commemorative occasions, to recall the great 
names and achievements of the race — ^not in any factious spirit, 
not for the purpose of making any invidious comparisons with 
the great men of other nations, but for the purpose of appealing 
to those great names and deeds in a spirit of generous pride, to 
show that the Irish have not beeil laggards in an advancing civili- 
zation, and to inspire us to greater efforts on the higher planes of 
human endeavor. The Society which is animated with such pur- 
poses, the organization which is committed to the perpetuation of 
such principles, must ever be a great cause, a great incentive, for 
the perpetuation of what is best in our social lives. We must 
never disparage the efforts of a society, we must never minimize 
the work of a man who endeavors to keep it firm and true in its 
objects and in carrying on its work, so that those who come 
after us may have the benefits that we enjoy, by having the in- 
centives of splendid traditions and splendid names. (Applause.) 

This is particularly a great work, when we remember the atten- 
tion which is paid, and the worship which is given at this time to 
wealth and to the development of a material and mechanical civili- 
zation. Commerce, and mines, and agriculture, and all the other 
factors that go to make a country rich — these can never make a 
country great. A country is great wherein we find great princi- 
ples, great names and great deeds. It is sentiments and princi- 
ples which control the world. Truths, ideas and sentiments are 
not mere facts and entities ; they are forces which have more ef- 
fect on the growth and development of a country than material 
civilization. Whatever touches the nerve force of a people, what- 
ever tends to the higher life, throws us into another sphere, raises 



43 

or lowers us upon a diflferent plane of activity. And so, I say, 
that the social and moral forces do more to the upbuilding and up- 
lifting of a country than any other factors in our civilization. I 
might say in regard to our own country that if we sum up its 
entire social destiny it will be found that when the record is made 
up of this great country it will not be a history of its great cor- 
porations, it will not be a history of its territory or its material 
wealth, but it will be a "sentiment to go out to other people and 
other nations, a sentiment which has been awakened by the cham- 
pions of liberty and that has been aroused by the apostles of hu- 
man right." (Applause.) 

Now, gentlemen, I see by your faces that you do not expect 
me to stay here all night and speak, and so I will come at once to 
the' very pleasant duty which, as Chairman of this Committee, has 
developed upon me. It was deemed proper and fitting that there 
should be some lasting memorial of this splendid assembly, and 
so, when the committee got together, this question of the character 
of the souvenir received considerable discussion. We, of course, 
exercising the right which belongs to the Irish in common with 
all freemen, could not agree. One man suggested that he thought 
that if the sentiments and feelings of Judge O'Gorman were alone 
to be considered, and he were asked what he would like, 
that he perhaps would suggest some target or shield, which 
would protect him from the reversible shafts of the Appellate 
Division. (Laughter.) Another gentleman said that there was 
a danger that ambition might stir him, and we would lose him 
from the court, and under those circumstances he thought the 
best thing we could do was to 'u.'atch him and chain him. 
(Laughter.) Another gentleman suggested that perhaps he would 
like to have a splendid Indian outfit, tomahawk, feathers, wampum 
belt and war paint, so that at his next appearance as Granri 
Sachem he would strike terror into the hearts of the Braves. 
(Laughter.) And there was another suggestion and that was 
that perhaps we might supply some form of an elastic addition 
to his house. He is a man of large and growing family and of 
great expectations, and we thought some provision should be 
made for the future. These in turn were all discarded, and 
finally we concluded that if it were possible we should select a 
testimonial that was typical of the man, and so the committee in 
their wisdom thought that they would select something which in 
quality would be like his character — that it should be sterling 



44 

(applause) ; that like his heart and mind it should be a metal 
pure and without alloy; and knowing the affection and the love 
which he has for his wife and his children, we thought that we 
would give him something which they could share with him ; 
and he, being a practical man, we thought we would give him 
something that was useful. And so, to-night, we have here a box 
which is replete with pure solid sterling silver. But, gentlemen, 
this box is no fuller of silver than our hearts are of warm 
and affectionate sentiments. And to-night, Judge O'Gorman, we 
would ask you to receive from this Society this gift as a token 
of our respect and esteem, and of the sentiments which actuate 
every gentleman who is present here to-night, and who wish 
you health, long life and happiness. (Applause.) 

The President: Gentlemen, Judge O'Cjorman. 

Judge O'Gorman on rising received an enthusiastic 
ovation and was greeted by the repeated cheering of 
the entire company. When the president had restored 
order. Judge O'Gorman said : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I am very grateful for this 
expression of your friendship, but my pleasure in being the recipi- 
ent of so distinguished a compliment is marred by the reflection 
that I have done so little to deserve it. When I assumed office 
three years ago I promised to do my best to keep the Society up to 
the high standard which it had reached at the close of Judge 
O'Brien's memorable administration. If we have flourished and 
the standard has been maintained, the credit of the achievement 
belongs not to me but to each and every one of the 500 Friendly 
Sons of St. Patrick. No society ever had more loyal and efficient 
officers than our vice-presidents. Judge Patterson and Dr. Mac- 
Guire', both of whom we have just heard with such delight; our 
treasurer, Mr. Crimmins; our almoner. Major Crane, and our 
secretaries, Mr. Moynahan and Mr. Rooney. (Applause.) Dur- 
ing the past three years they gave the best of their time and en- 
ergy to the welfare of our Society. But even their services, great 
and invaluable as they were, aided by the services of our ever 



45 



faithful stewards and committees, could not produce the conditions 
which now afford us cause for so much rejoicing were they not 
sustained by your splendid and enthusiastic co-operation. The 
high estate to which we have attained as one of the oldest soci- 
eties on this continent must be attributed to the intelligent, honor- 
able and patriotic devotion which has always distinguished the 
membership of our grand old organization. Indeed, this thought 
inclines me to give to this occasion a significance beyond the in- 
dividuality of any man. I prefer to see in this gathering an evi- 
dence of the Society's appreciation of its past glorious history 
and a resolution to make still greater strides and to wield a still 
greater influence in the future. We are proud of the position our 
Society occupies to-night, but with the close of Judge Fitzgerald's 
term I am sure we shall have even greater cause for felicitation. 
This has always been a progressive institution. It has always 
been widening its influence and scope of usefulness. The Society 
has always led, and speaking from my own experience, your 
presidents have had all they could do to keep up with the proces- 
sion. This has been so whether the president was that charming 
and eloquent orator and brilliant advocate, James T. Brady, or his 
gifted and distinguished brother, Judge John R. Brady, or that 
eminent jurist and citizen whose talents and high character 
adorned the bench of the Common Pleas Court for forty years, 
Judge Charles P. Daly, or that prince of journalists, Hugh J. 
Hastings, whose name and character are so worthily sustained 
in our times by his son, Hugh Hastings, who is winning laurels 
as the State Historian, or those men whose names are redolent 
of the memories of civic excellence and commercial and financial 
leadership in our metropolis, Eugene Kelly, Joseph J. O'Donohue 
and Henry L. HogueL It has been so under the presidency of our 
living ex-presidents, under Samuel Sloan, who became a member 
sixty years ago next month, and who became president forty-five 
years ago; under David McClure, John D. Crimmins, James S. 
Coleman and Morgan J. O'Brien, all of them men whose attain- 
ments and high repute and exemplary lives have shed a lustre upon 
Irish character and have given an impetus to Irish effort and in- 
spiration in this great city. (Applause.) To me it has been a great 
honor to occupy for three terms the highest office in your gift. I 



46 



shall ever treasure the memory of those years and of your kindness 
to-night. We cannot all be presidents, but we should remember 
that to be a member of this Society is no ordinary distinction. 
Among the founders of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick were men 
who risked their lives and fortunes in the sacred cause of Ameri- 
can liberty in the War of Independence. On our roster are the 
names of men who played an honorable and conspicuous part in 
every crisis in our country's history and in every stage of the 
marvelous growth and development of our city and State. Let us 
be worthy of these men. Let their memory confided to us be 
transmitted untarnished to those who will succeed us. Let us 
ever be animated by an earnest and intense Americanism. Let 
Old Glory and the institutions which her folds protect ever be 
the object of our tenderest solicitude and devotion. (Applause.) 
Let us keep ahve at the same time the traditions of the cradle 
land of our race. (Applause.) Our people in the old land are 
still suffering from the ills and oppression of an alien domination. 
They have never known liberty as we know it. They have made 
every sacrifice to secure it. In their resistance to tyranny they 
have often sustained defeat, and at times their cries for liberty 
have been hushed, but the aspiration, the living heart throb of the 
race for the blessings of human freedom has never been and 
never shall be extinguished. They have survived the vicissitudes 
of war and pestilence and most dreadful persecution, and they are 
now hoping for the dawn of a better day. For two hundred years 
every battle field of the world, from Corunna and Ramilles and 
Fontenoy, down to the last struggle on the veldts of South 
Africa, has been enriched with the blood, whitened with the 
bones and consecrated with the valor and prowess of Irish exiles. 
(Applause.) In every land where Irishmen have had a fair 
field and no favor in the contests of honorable competition they 
h&ve won high distinction in all human activities. It is about time 
that they were allowed to do something on their own soil and in 
their native land work out their own destiny. In common with 
our kin the world over I am sure you will suffer no change 
in your attachment to the land of your forefathers until we can 
look across the seas at a redeemed, prosperous and contented Ire- 
land worthy the genius of the Celt. (Applause.) 



47 

Gentlemen, I again thank you. Your greeting has been so cor- 
dial and the occasion has been inspired by such generous impulses 
that I would be glad indeed if I could convey to each of you the 
sense of appreciation and gratitude which I feel but which I have 
so imperfectly expressed. 

"Your bounty is beyond my speaking, 
But though my mouth be dumb, 
My heart shall thank you." 

(Loud and prolonged applause.) 

The President: Gentlemen, this assemblage has been 
graced by the presence in the gallery of the amiable wife 
of our worthy guest and four of his beautiful and accom- 
plished daughters. I think we should drink the health 
of ;Mrs. O'Gorman and the Misses O'Gorman, and I call 
call upon a life-long personal friend of Judge O'Gorman 
and his family to say the final words to-night. I take 
pleasure in introducing the Honorable John J. Delaney. 
(Applause.) 

Mr. Delaney, who was warmly received, said: 

Mr. President and Gentlemen : This is an occasion to which 
I am conscious I cannot do justice. The emotions which this 
splendid testimony to Judge O'Gorman's worth awaken in my 
breast, recall the associations with him of many years and 
carry my mind back to the days when we first met. Had I but 
an intimation before this moment that so great a distinction 
would be accorded me, I would have forearmed myself so that 
I might strive to meet the requirements of a public expression 
of my sentiments. I do not dare, therefore, to speak the thoughts 
that have swept over me with such delight as I sat here and 
heard your guest extolled. 

Across the years that divide us from our youth, I look back 
to the time when my acquaintance with him began and it seems 
to be appropriate to say before this organization that the cause 
of our ancient race furnished the occasion for our nieeting. It 
was the days when the entire world was listening to the demand 



48 

of Ireland for the right of self-government, and the enthusiastic 
devotion of our people and their loyal offspring everywhere had 
taken up the cause. 

We had both been instilled with the great hope of the redemp- 
tion of our race and over our cradles and into our childish ears 
had been sung the prophetic lay of the poet : 

"The nations are fallen, but thou still art young, 

Thy sun is but rising when others have set, 
And though slavery's clouds o'er thy morning have hung, 
The full noon of freedom shall beam round thee yet;" 

and even before manhood had dawned upon us we had already 
answered the demand of this cherished sentiment and espoused 
the cause. 

An intimate friendship since then afforded opportunity for a 
close observation of the man who is your guest to-night, and 
that very friendship, sacred for its unsullied joy and the tender 
benefactions of advice and encouragement to me seems to check 
an expression as generous as I would make it, though still inade- 
quate to do him justice. 

Of the wife of his heart and the children of that happy 
union a word should be said. He is blest in them and they in 
him. 

More than this I shall not trust myself to speak, but if the 
day be ever reserved to me when I may meet a son of Judge 
O'Gorman old enough to understand me. I shall tell him that 
I knew his father in the days when temptations are strongest and 
that through that strife he came unscathed. I shall tell him of the 
hidden history of his father's life in which are concealed his 
greatest virtues, and I know that it will be to the boy an in- 
spiration to a pure and upright manhood and the greatest glory 
and the greatest pride to her whom our guest calls by the tender 
name of wife. (Applause.) 

The President: In adjourning- the meeting, let me 
call on the guests to give three final cheers for our guest. 
Judge O'Gorman. (Cheers.) 



I 



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